The Lord is my Shepherd
That’s Relationship!


I shall not want
That’s Supply!


He makes me to lie down in green pastures
That’s Rest!


He leads me beside the still water
That’s Refreshment!

He restores my soul
That’s Healing!


He leads me in paths of righteousness
That’s Guidance!


For His Name sake
That’s Purpose!


Yes, though I walk through the valley of Death
That’s Testing!


I will fear no evil
That’s Protection!


For He is with me
That’s Faithfulness!


His rod and His staff comfort me
That’s Discipline!


He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies
That’s Hope!


He anoints my head with oil
That’s Consecration!


My cup runs over
That’s Abundance!


Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
That’s Blessing!


And I will live in the House of the Lord
That’s Security!


Forever
That’s Eternity!

Word from Pastor Stan

I have been thinking a great deal about the Folks at ICCS while I am in LA. One of the things I think about is friendships.

I really miss the friends at ICCS. There are great people there and there has been plenty of history with many of them but… There is something very special about ICCS friends.

Some of them have been with us for all the time ICCS has been. Some came to the very first Sunday and have been faithful ever since. Some of the people who started with us are no longer with us. John writes about some of them in 1 John 3:11.

11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

My first reaction to that is “Of course we are to love one another. That is a no-brainer.” And, of course, I would be wrong to say that. That is not easy-in the flesh. We really want to have our way in which we are to love. There are some people—you know who they are—who are not very loving. The Lord does not mean them, does He?

You guessed it! He does and He even loves them AND He even loves the likes of you.

So end of discussion. We should love one another.

But that sounds like there is a way out. We “should” love. Does that mean we might not have to love certain people after all? No. We are to love them because the Lord has told us to. It is THE way we KNOW we have eternal life! If we do not love, then the Love of the Father is not in me. I cannot afford that position. I need His love so I guess I need to love.

Why not? It is the Way of the Cross. Not that it is a cross I need to bear. No, it is our joy to do so.

We are not to act out our lifestyle as Cain did. He was jealous of his brother so he killed him. We don’t like someone so we EXCLUDE them from fellowship and that is the same thing. We kill relationships all the time and God does not want that of His Children. We are to love.

John goes on and touches our hearts: 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.

Just a few things about these verses. ONE: John always hits the button right on the hot spot. Our actions and the way we use money affects our relationship with Him. If we say one thing and we do another, the Love of the Father is not in us. Again with the Love of the Father!

Verse 19 says how things should be IF we walk in the Truth. We know when we belong to His Truth. It is reflected in our hearts and in our actions. There is REST when it ‘works’. After all, there is no thing we can hide from our God. He knows it all anyway. Why try to hide-- like Cain?

TWO: We need to obey the Truth because … 23 And this is His command: to believe in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. 24 Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.

Do you know this? Do you act this way? Are there areas of your life that do not match up with what He wants of us? I am not talking about works vs. faith. I am talking about walking in His Truth and letting that way of life show how much we love the Father.

So I miss those people because I have seen them walk this way. “…this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.” This unity shows us (and the world) that we are in Him. United in Him.

Let this be your song for the week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXCoHxX1OC8&feature=player_embedded

Let this be your song for the week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXCoHxX1OC8&feature=player_embedded

When the fire comes!

Fire is seen on the top of the mountain. There is smoke everywhere. Ash covered our van and the air—even 20 miles from the fire is filled with uncomfortable smells and debris. As we drove by the homes of people who are just yards away from the fire line, some of them are standing outside with water hoses. They are trying to do what they can do to keep what they have. From the TV coverage, one woman said, “They say take out what is important and move away. What? It is ALL important to me!”



Another couple returns to their home. It is the only one left in the community. ALL the houses on their street are in ashes. Nothing of theirs is even hurt. When they saw what their neighbors had lost, they feel they could not return…not when all the rest lost so much.

What would you carry out of a house that will be burnt down?
What is important to you?

While talking with the manager of our apartment complex yesterday, he asked the same question of me. He had seen us move in with eight suitcases. Friends of one of our supporting churches brought in the things in the apartment. Beds, dishes, linen, lamps. The manager and myself agree. Those are only things. There are more important things to be concerned with in life. Ready the heart for His Return. Open the heart to His love. Receive the forgiveness only He can give.



Not that those in the way of the fire were wrong, mind you. When it comes to push and shove, I’d be hard pressed what to carry out. I guess my MacBook because on it are so many photos of friends and many memories. Important documents. Contact information of friends. I would take my Bible. Maybe a shirt I just bought. I would be sure my children and my wife were safe. Then I would drive away and look back only once—not in the wife of Lot sort of way, but to see how close the flames were.



How about you? When the fire comes, what will you do?



We are told to look up and see Him as He really is. That should scare some! It did for John when he saw Jesus—his close friend—as he wrote the last book of the Bible (Revelation 1:17). There is a change in life we may not be ready for. I would suggest we get ready. It starts with a personal relationship with God’s Son. Read about it in John 3:16, Romans 3:10-18, Romans 4:24-25, (well, in fact, Romans 6-9.) We are asked to submit ourselves to God and allow the Maker of our souls and giver of our life to take control.



Because the fires in our lives are way out of control. He is the only one who can put the fire out. (Some of the firemen near this fire tell us they have seen flames over 100 feet high!) Once that fire burns out, many many acres of mountain brush and pines will be no more. Some will loose their homes. Some may loose their own lives. Two have already died. Is it too late to make preparations for the fires of life? No. Is there a way to keep us from being destroyed? Yes. Go to Jesus.

Time To-Rethink

Once, when I was a small boy, I had the notion that I was not from this planet. My older brother supported that notion. I began to feel that I was indeed an alien and I had not even heard of Area 51. I, as my story went, came from a planet much like Earth that was behind the Coal Sac in the Milky Way. I came to earth the usual way but was left behind only to be adopted by the De La Cour family as they traveled thru New York City. They heard about this poor child, without a home, without a family and without any passport. They took pity in me and brought me into the family. A real-to-life story but not true.



I had no real special abilities as an alien that I was aware of. Later in life, I found that I could fly but for some strange reason, not when the bully wanted to hurt me. I could also know, without anyone telling me, when your birthday was. I could also look at a person and ‘know’ if that person was alright in their spirit. Two of the three talents are lost to me now. The one remaining had gotten me in trouble sometimes. I could be wrong but the feeling was very strong at times.



Back then, I found myself walking around the woods behind my Esmond home. There were about two or three miles of trees, some areas with tall pine. There were brooks and some springs. Cold, clear water came bubbling up out from under the old granite stones. A small empty quarry had filled with water which became the home to many frogs. Then there were the ‘flat rocks’, the ‘frog pond’ and the one real pond which I only found once. What a magical place, indeed. Surrounded by needle and thorn bushes, it was very hard to get to. Once there, the sight was wonderful to behold! Clear water, a gentle current and a small water fall at the exit point. But as I said, I was only able to find it once…



There was also a Boy Scout Camp up there as well. Small huts that used to be the homes for the poor rubble that followed the trains during the ‘Great Depression’. I found that place only once as well.



Why I never returned bothered me for a long time, only to move away and dream of a time to return to the woods of Esmond.


But now, there is deer tick.



As an adult, I can remember even the smells and colors of those special spots of my youth. I spent hours up there. At times, I would be a special Indian scout, helping white folks get around the swampy areas. Other times, and here is the rub, I was reciting psalms of praise to the God of the Bible--even before I knew Him. Some of the songs were really good, but I don’t remember them any more. Wish I could. Take my word of it, it was divine.



I became really interested in the Spirit world at around 12/13. I used, what I called then, ‘white magic’. That did not run into any conflict with my Baptist upbringing. Or so I thought.



Soon I was invited to parties and they would ask me to do ‘my thing’. Got to meet some interesting kids that way. One time, I had the group believing I was speaking for the dead Grandmother of one of the girls. I used my voice to my advantage and some tricks I picked up along the way so I’d have a free hand to throw something to the other side of the room or touch someone’s arm or reach over and slam the side door shut. The desired effect was one of fear. I got what I wanted--plus!



Then, one day, I heard of the Gospel. Not that the message was so very different from what I had heard from Sunday School days, it had some new ‘things’ attached. Personal. Touched my heart. Saw my need. Prayed before I went to sleep.



In the morning, there were no sign of angles in the room or any special lights around my head. Just a 15 year old teenage with a new heart.



About two months later, while watching TV, I saw the EXACT things I had been doing at the party games being described as being not white magic but dark or black magic. Freaked me out! Even the free hand trick. Time to re-think.



The Scriptures tell us that as a child, I spoke as a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish things. The ‘story’ if the Coal Sack was in the past. Now, I had a new and truthful mission. Telling others of the Gospel I now embrace with all my heart.



Now, the ‘gift’ I had as a child come to me every so often. The only one I still have I have found to be one of the Gifts of the Spirit. Discernment. Sometimes I am wrong as I depend on my own strength and not relay on His Spirit to guide me. Every so often, I can see something like white lights around certain people’s eyes. Those who have these special eyes are not of God. I see it in some who come to church as well as on the street. Now, I am not as put out as I used to be. I now ask the Lord to help me and them, as I had to re-think what my role or responsibility now is as a member of the Body of Christ.



I say more prayers for them now. Try and talk with them of the freedom we now have in Christ Jesus. It is now time for them to re-think.

New Word from Pastor Stan

Greetings from Rhode Island, USA!

I am back in the area where I grew up. Not far from this site is the high school I went to. Very close to the place were I first got kissed. We are down the street from my old friend Jim and his wife. It is ‘wicked’ being here!

Please don’t worry! That word is common here meaning ‘very good’! Different places have different words with way different means. Isn’t that wicked?

The one thing that does not change is the POWER of the Word of God. The power of a changed life!

As I looked out over the group I was worshiping with this morning, I was reminded of the wonderful fact that we are all in the same boat. We all have to deal with our sin the same way. It HAS to be though the Blood of Jesus. That is because we were wicked.

That is not a regional expression. “We all have sinned and have fallen far short of the Glory of God.” What do we do with this information? We act on it.

We come to God in prayer. Prayer or talking to God is not all that hard. We get more and more use to that when our relationship gets better and closer. We tell Him that we know we are wicked. Really wicked. Our sin caused Him to go to the Cross to begin with. We need to express that we are sorry for our sins. The need to understand how bad we are comes in here. We then ask Him to forgive us for those sins and for the sins we will fall into. He hears the prayer of a repenting sinner. He then takes those sins and removes them from our lives. Removes them from His memory and sends them away—as far as the east is from the west and they are not there any more. Just His love.

Ask Jesus to come into your life and make Himself known by His Holy Spirit. His Spirit will seal you with His love forever. His Spirit will teach you how to live a life that He wants you to live.

That, my friend, is wonderfully great! We are now forgiven! Able to now have fellowship with our Creator and His Son and Holy Spirit.

Wicked? I don’t feel comfortable giving that word to this situation. But it is great beyond words!

If you have done this, if you have asked Jesus into your heart, please let me know.

May His Grace fill you.